When HP announced the Blackbird 002 back in September 2007 the gaming community went wild, and I personally went crazy over it and fell in love with it immediately. For the past few weeks HP has been teasing us about a new gaming machine, and late last week they released a teaser video that showed a smaller looking blackbird.
Well it wasn’t a smaller looking blackbird, it was the new Firebird a system designed for photo editing, music creation, movie editing and of course gaming. But what HP has done is created a machine that is powerful but not power hungry.
Today HP introduced the HP Mini-Note 2140 an upgrade to the popular 2133.
The 2140 looks similar to the 2133 with some major and minor differences, the 2140 sports a 10.1 inch LED backlight screen in either standard or high def and the speakers are just above the keyboard instead of on the sides of the screen like it was on the 2133. The 2140 unlike the 2133 will be powered by an Intel Atom Processor which will give the 2140 better battery life over it’s counterpart. The 2140 will also have built in wi-fi and optional bluetooth.
According to the Chinese 2008 has been the year of the Rat, but for me 2008 has been the year of the Wi-Fi All in One Printer. HP, Epson and Lexmark have all put their best foot forward and each has delivered a great all in one.
Today we bring you a review on the Lexmark X4975 a wi-fi all in one. I’d like to say that I haven’t really cared for Lexmark over the past 2 years, as their quality hasn’t been as good as I remember. But when I met with Lexmark at a press event a few months ago, they said they had improved their build quality. I’m happy to say that they were truthful the quality of the X4975 is a lot better than other lexmark units I have had in the past. It also looks pretty sexy too!
I am probably one of the few people who rather have a wired mouse over a wireless one, maybe it has to do with the interference I experience in my home or the fact that I find wired mice more responsive and faster than wireless ones. But having a wired mouse has it’s draw backs and the biggest draw back is the wire.
Wires tend to get in the way and sometimes even cause you to mess up during games. I personally have found my self putting stuff such as notebook batteries or soda bottles on top of the wire to keep it still. Little did I know was all I needed was an anchor. You know the kind they use at the library so you don’t steal the mice.
So I recently tested out a Lenovo Thinkpad with a Samsung SSD drive to see how it handled. I have heard great things about SSD and I have had quick demos from Kingston, Samsung and Toshiba on their SSD drives but never really had any hands on experience with one.
So when Samsung offered to loan me a ThinkPad I immediately said “YES”, I mean who wouldn’t jump at the chance to test out a laptop and it’s SSD drive? But I didn’t have a ThinkPad that had a traditional platter harddrive to compare it against. That was until I borrowed one from a friend who recently purchased one.
Today HP announced the newest version of their MediaSmart server, a server for your home that runs the Windows HomeServer Operating System.
The new HP MediaSmart server received a memory upgrade over the previous version (2GB of memory by default now) it also has an Intel CPU (bye bye AMD), and it now comes with 750 GB (EX485) or 1.5 TB (EX487) two 750 GB drives.
But the shocker of this announcement isn’t the added memory or increased default storage, the shocker is that the new HP MediaSmart Server supports Macs! HP has launched the first Windows HomeServer with Mac Support, and it is also the first network attached storage device that isn’t made by Apple that works with Time Machine. Please correct me if I am wrong about this.
Man oh man, I am loving this machine. I have had it a little over three weeks and I have to say it is the best netbook I have used and I have used a few.
HP took the design of the Mini-Note 2133 and made it even more stylish, lighter and even way faster, and what is even more amazing.
The HP Mini 1000 is blazing fast, which is pretty impressive for it’s size. What impressed me the most is how it is able to play blu-ray movies. I tried that on my 2133 and forget about it, the movie wasn’t watchable, but I installed an external blu-ray player to it and man did it handle it. Oh and the sound, the sound on the mini 1000 can put any sound system on any netbook or notebook for that matter to shame.
Today WD has released a firmware update to their WD TV Media Player we reviewed not to long ago.
The Update fixes a sleugh of issues and adds over 15 new features such as 1080p 24hz support and support for TP and TS files. To download the update visit http://support.wdc.com
Roku today announced that it has released an update to their set top box that will allow you to stream HD content from Netflix.
“Netflix is a pioneer in streaming HD content over the Internet and the results are impressive,” said Anthony Wood, founder & CEO of Roku. “Adding hundreds of HD titles to their catalog of more than 12,000 streaming titles provides tremendous value to Roku owners.”
“No other HD device delivers as diverse a catalog of HD entertainment along with flexible HDTV connections and incomparable price-value as Roku,” says Richard Doherty, Research Director for The Envisioneering Group. “More and more HD video programming is instantly available, making Roku even more valuable over time than many expensive PVRs and leased services.”
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